Saturday, February 17, 2018

When I saw the opportunity to purchase this gold /10 5x7 Topps Online card for under $8, I knew I had to act quick.

I don't buy many of the 5x7 cards except for a few of the Golds that I really like and any that are exclusive to the site like how Fire was in 2014.

Something about this card screams to me Unsolved Mysteries.

I can imagine Robert Stack's voice discussing how the Pittsburgh Pirates were celebrating another playoff berth and for 3 seasons (2013 - 2015) they had the second most wins in all of baseball.

It would go on to discuss how guys like Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, and Matt Holiday regained their form to become pivotal players in the deaths of all Pirates fans dreams. How a young man, Michael Wacha, would become a hero in a city the same day he became a villain in another. It would discuss how two men single handily killed 80K Pirates fans (playoff hopes) in 2 years by shutting down the team (MadBum and Jake Arrieta).

It would talk about how these 3 Pittsburgh fan favorites would all but disappear shortly after this image was caught.

Yes the team who had just won 98 games in 2015 and had 4 prospects in the top 100 entering the 2016 season (Meadows, Taillon, Glasnow, Bell) would go on to have a pair of losing seasons before the face of the franchise, the man simply known as Cutch, would leave westward the same as the last Face of Franchise we had.

So this Unsolved Mystery ends with the simple question
WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED?

Friday, February 16, 2018

The always awesome AJ, author of the Lost Collector sent me a bodacious gnarly package that really was fresh.

You might have read that first sentence and thought you entered a time loop back to the 80s.

Well, AJ being the bomb dope fresh friend that he is sent me this 1983 Andrew McCutchen insert using the 1983 design.

It's bad to the bone.

Well the back is actually bad...

You see there's a tiny little lie on the back.

Andrew didn't hit a Grand Slam against the Giants on July 24th. He hit a 3 run homer and drove in another run. No Grand Salami tho.

AJ didn't stop with the 80s theme with just Cutch though, he sent Clemente cards from 1982

And 2 from 1987

That's 3 pieces of cardboard over 30 years old!!! The dude has lost his mind. I about had a cow when I saw those...

Ok, if you want to learn about all the fun words we said in the 80s, click here. It's a fun trip down memory lane.

AJ also sent a smorgasbord of Tyler Glasgow cards. If the Pirates are to be a respectable competitive franchise for the next few years, Glasnow must emerge as a top of rotation talent that he was predicted to be.

To wrap things up, AJ sent me some more Cutch cards I needed for the PC. The Opening Day insert and Blue Legends in the Making are both new additions to go with the 1983 that he sent me.

AJ thank you so much. You should be gettin a care package your way next week.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Some players I wish that Cutch had either relics or autos with would include:
Barry Bonds (Pitt and San Francisco connection)
Aroldis Chapman (threw fastest recorded pitch to Cutch)
Russell Martin and Justin Morneau (combined to complete the final out to secure Pittsburgh's 1st Winning Season in 20 years. A triple threads triple relic with 8-3-2 with a description of the play on back would have been awesome in 2013)

One player I always wanted a card of Cutch with was Dave "Cobra" Parker. Both began their careers with Pittsburgh and won MVP awards while showing 5 tool talent skill sets.

Thanks to Hits Memorabilia "Throwbacks" release I can finally cross that dream card off my list. Not only is it a card I always wanted to be made, but it's also a new 1/1 card for the collection.

The card features a warm up jacket worn by Parker during his California Angels years in addition to a Spring Training jersey worn by Cutch.

Now you may ask why I didn't show off a Valentine related card today. Well...this Cobra (Commander) meme should answer that question.

Today, I'm boppin with the boys. Being stuck at work and avoiding overpriced dinners and flowers. It works out well.
Boppin with the boys...a phrase made popular by a Dave Parker t-shirt from the 70s.

Cutch's new teammate Evan Longoria is sportin the shirt

That said, the lady and I will be going out this weekend to enjoy each other's company.

Monday, February 12, 2018

I have recently begun posting on FreedomCardboard Forums and I am stunned at some of the player collector's there and their commitment to adding everything they can of certain players (mostly stars of the 90s). Reading some of their posts and recognizing small details in the fine print and seeking them out impresses the hell out of me.

This got me thinking about a card I have had in my possession for half a decade. No official numbers support this production error, but I have NEVER seen another show up in the past 5 years on eBay.

What you see here may appear to be a 2012 Topps Chrome Face of the Franchise die cut card.

The details are in the fine print though. Look in the center and you can see the words Topps Certified Autograph Issue

You may notice that there's no autograph.

Maybe someone just cleverly printed that on the card.
Maybe the concept of this card is a fake.

Well, check out the back.

Looks pretty standard, right?
Can you tell the difference in the card above and card pictured below?

Again the details reveal this card's true purpose.

This card was intended to be signed.
Clearly this card was intended to be autographed, but for whatever reason this card never got the sticker autograph applied to it, nor did it receive the serial numbering to 15 copies that all other Face of Franchise autos had placed in gold foil on the back left hand side.

It is possible that there are 14 others of this card out there. It is also possible there are more out there. It's most likely though that there are a dozen of these in dime boxes to dollar bins of this unknown production error.

I would love to find an officially signed version of this card one day, but I haven't yet.